Food for the Soul

Food for the Soul

As I flipped through my most recently mailed culinary magazine, my eyes lit up with all the great food I could cook in the next few months. I’m a student affairs professional by day, wannabe culinary genius by night and I believe food soothes the soul. Not just any food. A good home cooked meal with friends and family to join. Being a part of making a meal and bringing others together is what makes me shine. Each person puts a little bit of themselves in their dish, sharing their story in the final meal. I sometimes dream about simple ingredients and how they can make a delicious, tummy-filling meal for others. When I’m in the kitchen, I challenge myself to step out of my culinary comfort zone to make something that I’ve never made before or add a little more spice to create a new zesty flavor.

This past Thanksgiving, I hosted for the first time. I was nervous as ever and researched how to roast the perfect turkey. I reviewed all the top rated recipes, compared the my go-to cooks like Alton Brown and Martha Stewart, and asked my grandmother all her best-kept secrets about how to make the perfect Thanksgiving meal. I knew of course that I couldn’t do this alone, so the friends I invited were asked to bring a side dish. The beauty of a potluck style meal is seeing how others create something of their own. This creation could be a family tradition or just one of their best cooked meals that highlight some of their culinary skills. In the end, our Thanksgiving meal turned out fantastic and the turkey was perfect!

I try to bring this experience to my every day—bringing in homemade cookies for a student meeting, making a little extra for my dinner meal to share with the office, or just by simply moving my meetings with students to a café for a cuppa tea. We even have potluck cook-offs where each month we celebrate the birthdays of the month in our office and we each bring our own special homemade dish to share. It’s become somewhat of a competition between us on who could make the best dish, which makes it all the more interesting! When we come together for a meal, our souls shine a little brighter and we’re able to take away the things that may drag us down in order to be rejuvenated for the next day. Maybe through all of this, I can become the next Top Chef…of course Student Affairs style!

~Keegan Mills, CCPA Director of Professional Development
Assistant Director, Student Leadership & Engagement
University of San Francisco